Rogues
For rogues, the only code is the contract, and their honor is purchased in gold. Free from the constraints of a conscience, these mercenaries rely on brutal and efficient tactics. Lethal assassins and masters of stealth, they will approach their marks from behind, piercing a vital organ and vanishing into the shadows before the victim hits the ground. Building Your Rogue As you create your rogue character, consider the character’s relationship to the law. Do you have a criminal past—or present? Are you on the run from the law or from an angry thieves’ guild master? Or did you leave your guild in search of bigger risks and bigger rewards? Is it greed that drives you in your adventures, or some other desire or ideal? What was the trigger that led you away from your previous life? Did a great con or heist gone terribly wrong cause you to reevaluate your career? Maybe you were lucky and a successful robbery gave you the coin you needed to escape the squalor of your life. Did wanderlust finally call you away from your home? Perhaps you suddenly found yourself cut off from your family or your mentor, and you had to find a new means of support. Or maybe you made a new friend—another member of your adventuring party—who showed you new possibilities for earning a living and employing your particular talents. Archetypes Arcane Trickster The Arcane Trickster brings magic to the Rogue. Enchantment and Illusion spells both offer fantastic options, trading in utility and trickery for the offensive options of the Assassin or the skill options of the Thief. Assassin Assassins are good at two things: Infiltration and (you guessed it) assassination. If you want to get into places unsuspected or just straight-up murder people, the Assassin is the way to go. However, they lack utility options for handling situations outside their specialized skillset. Inquisitive If you want to be really good at Insight and Perception, this is the way to do it. Combined with Expertise there's no one who could reasonably compete with the Inquisitive's powers of perception. However, the archetype offers nothing to do once you notice stuff. It would be great in a campaign that includes lots of traps, hidden doors, and people who lie to you, but in situations not specifically tailored to the Inquisitive's skillset, they fall back on basic Rogue class features. Mastermind The Mastermind works best in a game with a lot of intrigue and social interactions. Half of the abilities won't ever come into play in your typical dungeon-crawl. Scout Scouts easily outcompete Rangers in skill use with Nature and Survival but lack any of the actual Ranger flavors. If you want to play a Rogue in a wilderness game, you could definitely do worse, and it's hard to think of a better way to make a Rogue that uses a bow. The Scout manages to keep you at a nice safe distance, keeping you safely out of attack range while your allies distract enemies long enough for you to Sneak Attack them. Swashbuckler The Rogue's biggest challenge is applying Sneak Attack reliably. While that's relatively easy in 5e, there are still times when you won't manage to Sneak Attack. The Swashbuckler all but eliminates these times, making the Rogue an even more reliable source of damage. In addition, the Swashbuckler has fantastic abilities for moving through combat, evading enemies, and even forcing them to engage the Swashbuckler, thereby allowing the Rogue to serve as the party's Defender. Thief The Thief is the vanilla Rogue, but that is not to say that it's boring. A Thief is reliable and very effective at the tasks which you most associate with Rogues.